


cocoa and mistletoe

by wisewolf



Series: finding home [5]
Category: Mean Girls - Richmond/Benjamin/Fey
Genre: Christmas Fluff, F/F, Marriage Proposal, Mistletoe, Tooth-Rotting Fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-01
Updated: 2020-12-01
Packaged: 2021-03-09 21:42:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,039
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27823204
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wisewolf/pseuds/wisewolf
Summary: “You talking about me?” Janis calls from the kitchen jokingly. It’s followed by a crashing sound, probably caused by her trying to grab a dish from the kitchen sink and causing an avalanche of ceramic and metal. Regina winces a little, but her expression relaxes when Janis pokes her head out with a smile and says, “We’re chilling, nothing broke.”Regina shakes her head and chuckles as she passes by on her way to the bedroom, taking a moment to admire the decorations before moving on to put some loungewear on while Janis starts cooking.It’s incredibly domestic, but that’s to be expected from a couple who will be celebrating nine years of dating in January. The thought strikes Janis as absurd. She can’t think of anything else she’s done for nine years, except maybe art. To think that she’s spent the last almost decade loving Regina George, someone who was once her mortal enemy. Nine years of navigating adulthood together, of making breakfast hip-to-hip before work, of inane bickering and sometimes real fights, but always with a conversation and makeup sex at the end of them.To think that she’s going to ask that very woman to be her wife.(or, the one with the proposal)
Relationships: Regina George/Janis Sarkisian
Series: finding home [5]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1842352
Comments: 13
Kudos: 31
Collections: 2020 AW Gift Exchange





	cocoa and mistletoe

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Lookagingerpanda](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lookagingerpanda/gifts).



> hope your holiday season goes better than mine is shaping up to! i know i've been pretty MIA writing wise, but hopefully once i'm done with this quarter of college i'll be feeling motivation again to write! still got lots of plans for ineffable, gays united, umbrellas, etc. so stay tuned!
> 
> also thank you to the lovely amanda, lookagingerpanda, for being so wonderful and giving me the opportunity to write for you! hope you enjoy this, grandma

With the Christmas season firmly upon them, the George-Sarkisian residence has been completely decked out, from kitchen to bedroom to bathroom and back, in glittering decorations, lights, tinsel, and fake pine. A fireplace roars on their TV, the melodious sound of Bing Crosby singing Christmas carols drifting through the apartment. The Christmas tree is tall and bright, the lights twinkling between a rainbow of colors, reflecting off of the perfectly positioned ornaments and casting dramatic shadows as the door opens and the inhabitants of the apartment shuffle in.

Janis shuts the door behind her and sets down the bags of groceries before peeling her gloves off and beginning to remove her layers of winter clothing, shaking the snow off on the mat before hanging them up on the hooks in the foyer. The tip of her nose is red from the cold, but she’s smiling broadly and adoringly in the direction of her girlfriend as she watches her shaking hands try and fail to unbutton her thick coat. “Here, let me,” she murmurs, reaching out and skillfully undoing the difficult buttons.

“Thanks,” Regina mumbles. She rolls up onto her toes to give Janis a peck on the cheek before removing the rest of her winter accessories while the brunette brings the groceries into the kitchen to start on dinner. As she hangs up her scarf, she notices Artie trotting up towards her, meowing in greeting before butting his head against her calves. She smiles and squats down, stroking down his back and scratching at his backside to elicit his gentle purrs. “Hey, little guy,” she coos. “God, you’re a cutie.”

“You talking about me?” Janis calls from the kitchen jokingly. It’s followed by a crashing sound, probably caused by her trying to grab a dish from the kitchen sink and causing an avalanche of ceramic and metal. Regina winces a little, but her expression relaxes when Janis pokes her head out with a smile and says, “We’re chilling, nothing broke.”

Regina shakes her head and chuckles as she passes by on her way to the bedroom, taking a moment to admire the decorations before moving on to put some loungewear on while Janis starts cooking.

It’s incredibly domestic, but that’s to be expected from a couple who will be celebrating nine years of dating in January. The thought strikes Janis as absurd. She can’t think of anything else she’s done for nine years, except maybe art. To think that she’s spent the last almost decade loving Regina George, someone who was once her mortal enemy. Nine years of navigating adulthood together, of making breakfast hip-to-hip before work, of inane bickering and sometimes real fights, but always with a conversation and makeup sex at the end of them.

To think that she’s going to ask that very woman to be her wife.

Ever since she was a child, Janis never really dreamt of marriage like the other little girls did. She was more focused on making a name for herself. The whole institution of marriage, in her mind, was very trivial, and honestly a nightmare riddled with capitalism. Flowers and cakes and dresses and catering, all of it was too overwhelming to even think about.

Regina, however… Janis watches as she returns from the bedroom in a worn Columbia hoodie, yoga pants, and slippers. The blonde sits down gently on the couch with her Kindle in hand and beams when Artie immediately leaps up into her lap. It’s an adorable image as Regina settles in with her reading glasses on and starts reading, petting Artie all the while.

If Janis didn’t care about marriage at all, it was all that Regina could seem to think about as a little girl. Her childhood sketchbooks were full of shoddy drawings of what she wanted her future wedding dress to look like, and she often officiated play marriages for her stuffed animals. She knew every detail, down to “I want a cake with fondant that looks super pretty, but then I want a real cake to eat because fondant is gross.” The big, white wedding was always a life goal for her.

It’s something they’ve talked about at length over the nine years of their relationship, to be honest. With every subsequent wedding of their friends -- high school, professional, or otherwise -- Janis would always see the longing in Regina’s eyes as the bride or groom was given away. She tried not to feel too guilty about depriving her girlfriend of this, because Regina respected her reluctance to get married, even if sometimes her insecurities came out to play and she wondered if Janis really even loved her if she didn’t want to marry her. It is the ultimate commitment, after all, besides death.

She remembers one night in particular where it’d come up briefly during the afterglow, both of them close to dozing off for the night:

_“Do you think about getting married?” Regina asks, their sweaty limbs tangled together as they bask in the warmth of their love. She’s not looking at Janis, instead buried in the other woman’s chest, so her voice is slightly muffled._

_“Sometimes,” Janis concedes carefully. It’s true, because sometimes she wakes up from a dream where the only memories are of white dresses, bouquets, tuxedos, and how radiant Regina would look when she lifts the veil from her face. “Not often.” A pause. “What about you?”_

_Regina shrugs and presses a kiss over the fluttering beat of Janis’ heart. “Less than when I was a kid.”_

_“So now you think about it a normal amount?” Janis teases._

_That earns her a pinch in the side._

_“Ass,” Regina mumbles, rolling her eyes. “I don’t know.”_

_“Do you still want as extravagant a wedding as you planned when you were eleven?” Janis asks, edging closer to the question she really wants to ask. This conversation makes her nervous, because it could set several things in motion depending on the way she asks and answers questions._

_Regina chuckles and shakes her head. She’s silent for a few long moments before saying, “We can nix the marching band and the horse drawn carriage, I think.”_

The conversation had petered off there, Regina falling asleep against Janis’ chest as the latter was left to stew in her thoughts. It was so obvious how badly Regina wanted to get married, how she still thought about it, the little fantasies she played out as a kid, and the more Janis thought about it, the more she was starting to want that with Regina.

None of this even gets to the point that Janis is 100% certain that Regina is the kind of girl who wants to be proposed to. The fact that she’d been the one to initially ask Janis out all those years ago was just a bout of bravery, but in every talk about marriage, there was always the implication that Janis would be the one to have to take the step. She was the one who had to make the final choice about getting married.

The ring is safely hidden on the highest shelf in the closet, a place Regina would have to get a chair or stool to find it. She’s confident that Regina will say yes, that she’ll be surprised and elated, but there’s also the niggling insecurity in the back of her mind that says Regina will reject her proposal when it happens later.

Janis puts the breaded chicken she’d absently made into the oven and blinks a few times, realizing she’d spaced out completely during the cooking process. She looks up into the living room to see that Regina is now lying lengthwise on the couch with her book, but otherwise she hasn’t moved much. It sounds like the fireplace channel has moved on from Bing Crosby to Michael Buble.

“Chicken’s in the oven; I’m just gonna make the sauce and the pasta and it’ll be done,” Janis announces. She feels untethered, just a little, but maybe that’s because she just spent the last twenty minutes thinking about the fact that _dear god, I’m proposing to my girlfriend tonight._

“Okay, baby,” Regina replies softly. She seems absorbed in her book, so that means she didn’t notice the unfocused look in Janis’ eyes, nor the robotic nature of her movements as she prepared the chicken.

She finishes up dinner soon after that, plating it and then bringing it out to the living room where Regina has lit a few candles and laid them out on the coffee table. “Chicken parmesan for the princess,” Janis says dramatically as she sets the plates down. “Enjoy.”

“Thank you, Dame Sarkisian,” Regina teases back. She holds her hand up to the plate without touching it, testing how warm it is before beginning to cut up the chicken into smaller pieces.

They share idle conversation throughout dinner, Janis trying her best to keep engaged so Regina doesn’t get suspicious about her odd mood. She doesn’t want to act weird and ruin the surprise, or make Regina worried, so she does her best to tease her girlfriend just the amount she normally would as she excessively blows on her chicken parm to cool it.

“It’s not that hot, baby,” Janis complains, taking a bite herself.

“I have a sensitive mouth! Don’t rush me.”

Janis shakes her head in amusement and bumps their shoulders together before they both fall into relative silence. They’d talked about their days, and the entire week, while grocery shopping that night, so there isn’t much to discuss now as the meal is winding down.

When they’re both done, Regina grabs their dishes and brings them to the kitchen, scraping the last of the scraps into the trash before rinsing them and putting them in the dishwasher. Janis follows behind and rests her chin on Regina’s head, swaying them back and forth in the kitchen until Regina turns around and tucks herself comfortably against Janis’ chest.

“This is nice,” she mumbles into the flannel of Janis’ shirt.

“Mmm…” Janis hums. She rocks them from side to side until Regina’s back is to the oven and Janis can see the time. It’s almost 8pm, and she realizes very quickly that there’s not much left to do in the night before Regina decides to shower and then start settling for bed.

But then, an idea strikes her.

“Do you want me to make hot chocolate?” she asks, her blunt nails scratching at the nape of Regina’s neck. She grins at the sound of Regina’s pleased purrs. “We got mini marshmallows and candy canes at the store.”

_“You_ got mini marshmallows and candy canes at the store,” Regina points out, pulling back far enough to raise an eyebrow at Janis. “Have you created a hot chocolate conspiracy?”

“Would it be a crime if I did?”

Regina narrows her eyes and leans back in. “You’re gonna make me gain weight if you keep feeding me like this.”

Janis groans at that. “We go through this every time I offer to make dessert.”

“Because it’s true!”

“Baby,” Janis whispers, pushing her out enough that Regina will look her in the eyes. She sees the defiance and insecurity in them, and even after nine years, she still hasn’t been able to get Regina to see just how beautiful she really is. “I love you. No matter if you gain weight or not, because weight is not indicative of health or worth. You eat right, you exercise. Treat yourself every now and then, yeah?”

Regina’s bottom lip wobbles a little before she firms it and swallows, nodding. She doesn’t say anything for a while before finally- “we have peppermint Schnapps in the cabinet.”

Janis cackles.

*******

There’s a strategy to Janis’ plan.

First, she made Regina’s favorite for dinner. It was inconspicuous enough, a seeming reward for getting through another week of wrangling paralegals and interns at the firm, not to mention the fact that it’s just a delicious and simple meal to make.

Second, she made the hot chocolate, one of Regina’s guilty pleasure treats during the holiday season. The Schnapps was unplanned, in all honesty, but it does make Regina a little looser with her body after she’s had a little in her drink. It all adds up to a very soft and pliable girlfriend who whines when Janis gets up, claiming to need the bathroom when really she’s going to grab the ring from the closet.

Third... 

Janis looks up as she re-enters the living room, the ring box held firmly behind her back. She spies the little sprig of mistletoe she’d taped to the ceiling while Regina was working late a few days ago and smiles before clearing her throat and saying, “Baby, can you come over here for a second?”

Regina, curious, urges Artie out of her lap and walks over to where Janis is standing, one eyebrow quirked. “What’s up?”

“So there’s something I wanted to talk to you about,” Janis begins softly, feeling her hand begin to tremble behind her back from how hard she’s gripping the ring box. Her heart is pounding, and she fears Regina will be able to hear it and realize she’s incredibly nervous.

“Is this good news or bad news?” Regina asks. She’s taken on a cautious tone, now.

“I hope you’ll think it’s good.” Janis takes a deep breath and reaches out with her free hand, lacing their fingers together. “Do you remember the first day we met? Really met?”

“Which one?” Regina teases. “When we were babies, seniors, or in college?”

“College,” Janis replies. “That was the first time, the real first time, that I actually looked at you. And I looked beyond what you were in my past. Everything just kinda fell away, and you were just this beautiful girl who flirted with me at the Starbucks register. It’s like I was seeing a whole new person.”

Regina smiles and nods. “You were different. I couldn’t forget everything I did, but I-” her voice breaks, and she swallows and clears her throat before continuing, “I could tell you saw me differently, then. It wasn’t the… the reluctance I felt coming off you in waves during every movie night in senior year.”

“You ruined my life,” Janis whispers. It’s something that changed her, and she’ll never forget it, as much as she’d like to pretend to. “But then you were different… you asked me out on a date because I was too afraid to.”

“And it’s been nine years.”

“Nine years…”

There’s not much left to say, so Janis figures now is as good a time as any. Her actions will speak where she can’t articulate anymore.

She slowly lowers to one knee, looking up at Regina who looks confused… and then shocked. Fair eyebrows raise almost to her hairline and her jaw drops, pink lips parting around a surprised: “Jay?”

“I love you,” Janis says strongly, squeezing their laced fingers. “You’re the love of my life. We’ve been through hell because of each other, and we grew from it, and became better. We moved on, spent time apart, and then miraculously we- we found one another again in a little Starbucks near Columbia. I don’t believe in fate, but if I did, I’d say it was putting us in each other's path for a reason.”

“Janis-”

“Regina George.” Janis brings the ring box around to her front, finally letting go of Regina’s hand so she can flip open the lid to reveal the ring. She looks up, directly into Regina’s eyes. “Will you marry me?”

Tears well in Regina’s eyes as she nods vigorously, motioning for Janis to get up off the floor with her hands. When Janis stands up, Regina immediately presses up on the balls of her feet and grabs Janis’ cheeks, kissing her firmly and deeply on the lips with all of the passion and love built between them for the past nine years, the past _nineteen_ years of knowing each other.

Janis pulls back with a gasp and a beaming smile, tears leaking from her own eyes as well. “Is that a yes?”

“Yes, dumbass, I will marry you,” Regina says, her words choked and emotional as she pulls away and looks at the ring caught between them. She pulls it gently out of the silk lining and holds it up to the amber light in their apartment, admiring the glittering diamonds and the rose gold band. She lets out a sob, though she’s smiling so hard it looks like it could split her face in half. “It’s beautiful, baby.”

“I’m so glad you like it.” Janis gingerly takes the ring from Regina and splays out her left hand, sliding it on until it fits snugly, perfectly, at the base of Regina’s ring finger. She brings Regina’s hand up, then, so she can kiss over her knuckles before letting her pull it back so she can stare at the way the ring looks on her.

“I do,” Regina whispers. “I love it.” She looks up at Janis, her eyes shining with joyful tears. “I love you.”

Janis grins and glances up again, smirking as she says, “Look… mistletoe.” Regina gives a wet laugh before Janis leans down to seal their lips together in a slow, deep kiss. When she pulls back, she rests their foreheads together, smiling when Regina doesn’t open her eyes immediately, her lips parted as her short breaths puff against Janis’ own.

“I love you too, baby,” Janis murmurs. Then, she laughs a little. “No one but Regina George could change my mind about getting married.”

“I’m glad you did,” Regina says.

“I love you.”

“We already said I love yous.”

“Say it back,” Janis whines. “Unless you don’t love me anymore. I can just take the ring back-”

“No!” Regina yanks her hand away and cradles it close to her chest, defensive.

Janis grins and holds her arms open, gesturing for Regina to come in for a hug, which she does. She kisses the crown of Regina’s head and whispers, “I love you.”

“I love you too, baby. Enough to say it for the rest of our lives.”

“Spend the rest of your life with me?”

“Only because you bought me such a beautiful ring.”

“Regina!”

**Author's Note:**

> so how was it? y'all have a favorite part? drop me a kudos and/or comment to let me know! it really makes my day seeing those ao3 emails in my inbox! if you wanna yell at me on tumblr you can find me @kingwisewolf
> 
> have a great holiday season y'all. stay safe.


End file.
